by Lane Rogers












  






Part Two, John Chapter 19___________-




John 19:38-42  

38After these things   Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body.

 39Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds weight.

 40So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews.

 41Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

 42Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

 Matthew 27: 57-61

57When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus.

 58This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.

 59And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,

 60and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.

 61And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the grave.

Mark 15: 42-47

  42When evening had already come, because it was the preparation day, that is, the day before the Sabbath,

 43Joseph of Arimathea came, a prominent member of the Council, who himself was waiting for the kingdom of God; and he gathered up courage and went in before Pilate, and asked for the body of Jesus.

 44Pilate wondered if He was dead by this time, and summoning the centurion, he questioned him as to whether He was already dead.

 45And ascertaining this from the centurion, he granted the body to Joseph.

 46Joseph bought a linen cloth, took Him down, wrapped Him in the linen cloth and laid Him in a tomb which had been hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb.

 47Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus were looking on to see where He was laid.

Luke 23:50-56 

50And a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man

 51(he had not consented to their plan and action), a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God;

 52this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

 53And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain.

 54It was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

 55Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid.

 56Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.



I. Verse 38   All four gospels tell of Joseph of Arimathea going to Pilate and requesting that he might remove the body of Jesus. There are some details found in the synoptics not recorded in John.

1. Joseph was a member of the Sanhedrin (Mk. 15;42; Lk. 23;51) and this meant he was a resident of Jerusalem.

2. He was one who was "looking" for the kingdom of God (Mk. 15:43; Lk. 23:51);

3. He was rich (Matt. 27:57).

4. That he dissented from the policy and actions of the Sanhedrin regarding Jesus (Lk. 23:50-51).

5. In John alone we find "but a secret one in fear of the Jews" (12:42-43).

In ordinary circumstances I think John would not have been supportive of Joseph. But under these conditions things were different. The "Romans" usually added to the crucified person's shame by not allowing them to have a decent burial. Most often, the crucified were left to the vultures. The Jews, unlike the Romans, did not deny a burial place to those they executed. According to Josephus this burial place for criminals was away from the city (Ant. 5:44). By the time of the Mishnaic writings, they provided two places. One for those who had be stoned or burned to death and another for those who had been beheaded or strangled. So, the request we find in V.31 would have also asked for permission to bury Jesus in a common grave. Thus, Joseph was a man of courage and valor to do what he did for Jesus. He was aware that by law he had no right to make a request for the body but was equally aware that Jesus' brothers did not make such a request. The "fact" that Pilate "allowed" Joseph to have the body, when Joseph had no right to that body, proclaims what we already knew. Pilate knew that Jesus was an innocent man!!! That is why he released the body to Joseph.

II. Verse 39  Whereas all the synoptics report about Joseph, none of them report about Nicodemus and his part in the burial. Nicodemus would not likely have had that many pounds of spices on hand. The sight of Jesus on the cross brought Joseph and Nicodemus together.

Myrrh is a fragrant resin often used by the Egyptians for embalming. The Jews rendered this into a powder along with aloes.

  8All Your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia;
Out of ivory palaces stringed instruments have made You glad. Psalm 45:8____________

In Prov. 7:17 a prostitute spreads her bed with myrrh and powder of aloes. Their use in the burying of the dead has nothing to do with embalming but is to combat the putrefaction of the corpse and keep it smelling sweet at least for a time.

The amount of spices used appears staggering and should be rendered about 65.45 pounds. However, at the funeral of Herod the Great (Ant. 17.199) five hundred slaves bore spices in the funeral procession as they followed the army and the king to the burial place.

III. Verse 40___Joseph and Nicodemus take the body of Jesus and bind it with cloth wrappings and spice

We notice a theme that starts to develop even before the trial of Pilate. From the opening conversation to the title on the cross that Pilate composed, and later would not alter, through all the vacillations of Pilate, the unrelenting demands of the Jewish leaders for His death, and the cruel mockery of the soldiers, the divine will was working its way. If Pilate's vaunted authority so appallingly misused in the trial, is given to him by God, the same applies to the Jewish leaders as they exercise their authority over the Jewish nation and bring about the execution of the "Son of God." It all remains under the sovereign control of God who holds in His hand the Son while He achieves the salvation for all humanity.

The spices were spread the length of the wrapping and these wound around the body of Jesus. They were spread on the bank of the tomb, or depending on the tomb, in the inner chamber. There are very detailed instructions in the Mishnah. The body was to be laid on a bed of sand during the Sabbath so it might be properly attended. The spices were a more effective form of odor control so a considerable amount must be used.



See Below for Quote from the Mishnah

Mishnah Shabbat___23:5A-J ___Babylonian Talmud

A. They prepare all that is needed for a corpse.

B. They anoint and rinse it,

C. on condition that they not move any limb of the corpse.

D. They remove the mattress from under it.

E. And they put it on [cool] sand so that [151B] it will keep.

F. They tie the chin,

G. not so that it will go up, but so that it will not droop [further].

H. And so in the case of a beam which broke —

I. they support it with a bench or the beams of a bed,

J. not so that it will go up, but so that it will not droop further.

For those who contend for the "Shroud of Turin" there are some very pointed questions raised here. Was Jesus even buried in a "shroud" or was he "wrapped."http://www.shroud.com/ 

We have a complete article on the Shroud of Turin located here:  (The Shroud of Turin).

We will also discuss wrappings other than the shroud later.
Verses 41-42____Our writer also mentions that there was a garden in the place where Jesus was crucified. John looks  to resurrection morning in his entire account of the burial. The tomb is said to be a "new one."

Comments concerning the burial of Jesus

I. There are some who claim that the body of Jesus was never buried. The Romans simply took the body down and put it in a dump or the vultures ate the body. Josh McDowell makes the following observations concerning that theory. In order to reach the above theory one must:

1. Completely disregard the testimony of events as preserved in secular history as well as religious history.

2. One must completely ignore the straightforward stories as told in the Gospels.

3. Why are the following accounts given if the body of Jesus was not actually taken by Joseph of Arimathea? The record speaks for itself. The body was taken down and laid to rest.

II. And what about the accounts of the preparation of the body? If such never took place, what was the motive for making these recordings?

III. What of the women who watched while Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus prepared and entombed the body of Jesus?

They "followed" after and observed the tomb (Lk. 23:55). They were sitting "opposite of the tomb" (Matt. 27:61). They "observed" where he was laid (Mark 15:47).

Surely the women knew about the body and the tomb.

IV. How can one ignore the observations recorded concerning the tomb itself?

"When Joseph had taken the body... and laid it in his tomb" (Matt. 27:59,60) "which had been hewn out of rock" (Mark 15:46), "where no one had ever lain before" (Lk. 23:53), which was located "in the place where He was crucified....in the garden" (John 19:41).

1. Thus we can conclude that the tomb was not a natural cave but an artificial excavation in the rock.

2. It was not cut downwards after the manner of a grave with us, but horizontally or nearly so, into the face of the rock."

V. Why did the Jews ask Pilate to place a guard at Christ's tomb, if no tomb was there????

62Now on the next day, the day after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate,63and said, "Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I am to rise again.'64"Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, otherwise His disciples may come and steal Him away and say to the people, 'He has risen from the dead,' and the last deception will be worse than the first."65Pilate said to them, "You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how."66And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone. Matthew 27: 62-67



The truth of the matter is plain. Had the body of Christ been merely disposed of in a ditch and left unattended there would have been no reason for his enemies to spread the rumor later that the body was stolen (see Evidences Lesson Two, found Here )

VI. ___And what about the visit of the women on the Sabbath?

1.

1Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. Matthew 28:1

2.

 2Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. Mark 16:2

3.

 1But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.

4.

1Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.

If Jesus had not actually been put in the tomb, records such as those above would not have been written down.

The Burial of Jesus


From Alfred Edersheim:

Not only the rich, but even those moderately well-to-do had tombs of their own, which probably were acquired and prepared long before they were needed, and treated and inherited as private property. In such caves, or rock-hewn tombs, the bodies were laid having been anointed with many spices, also with hyssop, rose-oil, and rose-water. The body was dressed and at a later period wrapped, if possible, in the worn clothes in which originally a Roll of the Law had been held. The "tombs" were either rock hewn or "natural caves." (Edersheim LTJM, 318-19).
Again from Edersheim:
The proximity of the holy Sabbath and the consequent need of haste may have suggested or determined the proposal of Joseph to lay the Body of Jesus in his own rock-hewn new tomb, wherein no one had yet been laid........
The Cross was lowered and laid on the ground and the cruel nails drawn out and the ropes unloosed. Joseph with those who attended him "wrapped" the Sacred Body "in a clean linen cloth" and rapidly carried it to the tomb in the garden close by. Such a rock-hewn tomb or cave had niches where the dead were laid. It will be remembered that at the entrance of the tomb....and within "the rock" there was a court "nine feet" where ordinarily the bier 1 was placed and its bearers gathered to do the last offices for the dead (Edersheim, LTJM, 617).
It was in the "court of the tomb (probably with a sand floor) that the anointing or burying took place.
See the Shroud of Turin (Shroud) We will have more say on the "Wrapping" later.









The Stone





I. The Jews called this stone golel. This stone was used to protect the dead from men and beast. A stone like this is often mentioned in the Talmud. According to Maimonides, a stone this large took several men to move it. We can surmise that since the Jews were expecting the body of Jesus to be "stolen" the stone rolled to cover His tomb may have even been larger yet.
Once again, McDowell notes that a phrase written in a 4th century manuscript as a note says that the stone was so large that 20 men could not have moved it. This particular note found in the Codex Bezae might even be a comment from an original witness that was moved over while copying. For more on this note see Observations on the History and Evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Thornburg, RNMC, 1-2).
The Witnesses all agree. When the women came to the tomb, they found the stone rolled away. Are we to believe that the women moved the stone? And yet, this is not all we need to mention. Edersheim notes that the ___Golel___was called the "Great Stone." Leaning against this "Great Stone" would have been a "small stone" called a Dopheg. It was where the one stone was laid against the other stone that Jewish authorities would have attached the seal thereby noticing if any thing had been moved.
The Seal

66And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone. Matthew 27:66



A. T. Roberson
The method of sealing the tomb was probably a cord stretched across the stone and sealed at each end as in Daniel 6:17___
And the point is that the stone could not have been opened without breaking the seal.
John Chrysostom________A.D. 347-381________________

What then does Pilate reply?" You have a guard of soldiers; go, make it as secure as you can. "Then what?" So they went and made the sepulcher secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard." Pilate takes every precaution to ensure the seal, so that even the soldiers could not commit fraud. His orders are , "Seal it as secure as you can, so that even you may not have it in your power to blame others." For if the soldiers were not checked by their sealing, someone might have claimed that the soldiers themselves could have given up the body to be stolen. Although this would have been highly improbable, yet nevertheless since they had earlier cast aside shame, so in this case they might have done so. Thus, even this possibility was cut off, which might have otherwise given opportunity to feign history concerning his resurrection. But now having themselves made it sure, they are not able to say so much as this. The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 89.1





The Guard (Matthew 27:62-66)

I. There is a great deal of discussion about the identity of the guard. Albert Roper makes the following comments:

Led by Annas and Caiaphas their chief priests, a deputation of Jewish leaders sought out Pilate, to request that the tomb where Jesus was laid be sealed and a guard set at the tomb. They were afraid that someone might steal the body and make it appear that Jesus had been resurrected.
To this request the acquiescent Pilate responded: "You shall have your guard. Make it secure according to your wish." They went on their way attended by a guard of Roman soldiers numbering from ten to thirty who under their direction sealed the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea with the Imperial Seals of Rome affixing it thereto in wax the official stamp of the procurator himself which would be a high crime to deface. Thus, the enemies of Jesus did by themselves prepare a unanswerable challenge to their subsequent explanation of the resurrection___an explanation which was not, and could not be explained (Roper, DJRD, 23-24)
And we continue:
Commanding the guard was a centurion designated by Pilate, presumably one in which he had full confidence. It is reasonable to assume that these guards were faithful and carried out their orders. The Roman seal affixed to the tomb was more sacred to them than all the philosophy of Israel. Soldiers cold blooded enough to gamble over a dying man's cloths are not the kind of men to be hoodwinked by timid Galileans or to jeopardize their Roman necks by sleeping at their post (Roper DJRD, 33).



11. A handbarrow or portable frame on which a corpse is placed

or borne to the grave.

[1913 Webster]